Samuel Rutherford (Letters, pp. 462, 463):
It is a sweet law of the New Covenant, and a privilege of the new burgh, that citizens pay according to their means. For the New Covenant saith not, “So much obedience by ounce-weights, and no less, under the pain of damnation.” Christ taketh as poor men may give. Where there is a mean portion, He is content with the less, if there be sincerity; broken sums, and little, feckless obedience will be pardoned, and hold the foot with Him. Know ye not that our kindly Lord retaineth His good old heart yet? He breaketh not a bruised reed, nor quencheth the smoking flax; if the wind but blow, He holdeth His hand about it till it rise to a flame.
The law cometh on with three O-yeses, “with all the heart, with all the soul, and with all the strength;” and where would poor folks, like you and me, furnish all these sums? It feareth me (nay, it is most certain), that, if the payment were to come out of our purse, when we should put our hand into our bag, we should bring out the wind, or worse. But the New Covenant seeketh not heap-mete, nor stented obedience, as the condition of it; because forgiveness hath always place.
Hence I draw this conclusion: that to think matters betwixt Christ and us go back for want of heaped measure, is a piece of old Adam’s pride, who would either be at legal payment, or nothing. We would still have God in our common, and buy His kindness with our merits. For beggarly pride is devil’s honesty, and blusheth to be in Christ’s common, and scarce giveth God a grammercy, and a lifted cap (except it be the Pharisee’s unlucky, “God, I thank Thee”), or a bowed knee to Christ. It will only give a “Good-day” for a “Good-day” again; and if He dissemble His kindness, as it were in jest, and seem to misken it, it in earnest spurneth with the heels, and snuffeth in the wind, and careth not much for Christ’s kindness. “If He will not be friends, let Him go,” saith pride.
Beware of this thief, when Christ offereth Himself.
The law cometh on with three O-yeses, “with all the heart, with all the soul, and with all the strength;” and where would poor folks, like you and me, furnish all these sums? It feareth me (nay, it is most certain), that, if the payment were to come out of our purse, when we should put our hand into our bag, we should bring out the wind, or worse. But the New Covenant seeketh not heap-mete, nor stented obedience, as the condition of it; because forgiveness hath always place.
Hence I draw this conclusion: that to think matters betwixt Christ and us go back for want of heaped measure, is a piece of old Adam’s pride, who would either be at legal payment, or nothing. We would still have God in our common, and buy His kindness with our merits. For beggarly pride is devil’s honesty, and blusheth to be in Christ’s common, and scarce giveth God a grammercy, and a lifted cap (except it be the Pharisee’s unlucky, “God, I thank Thee”), or a bowed knee to Christ. It will only give a “Good-day” for a “Good-day” again; and if He dissemble His kindness, as it were in jest, and seem to misken it, it in earnest spurneth with the heels, and snuffeth in the wind, and careth not much for Christ’s kindness. “If He will not be friends, let Him go,” saith pride.
Beware of this thief, when Christ offereth Himself.
